Denmark’s children return to school as government plans to further ease coronavirus restrictions

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Schools weigh advancing students to next grade amid COVID-19

School administrations across the country are scrambling to figure out what comes next to make up for the lost time in classrooms; Garrett Tenney reports.

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Denmark allowed some of its youngest students to return to classrooms on Wednesday as the government plans to reopen society faster than anticipated -- a result of the continued drop in coronavirus-related hospitalizations.

While classrooms in many countries around the world have remained closed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nordic country reopened schools for students from preschool to fifth grade. Older students must still study online from home.

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“I’m very impressed,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told the TV2 channel as she attended the first school day in Valby, suburban Copenhagen. “The children are very happy to see their buddies again.”

Frederiksen spokes to pupils during the reopening of Lykkebo School in Copenhagen on Wednesday. (Philip Davali/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

But the return to classrooms does not come without a set of hygiene and social distancing rules.

"We have a lot of washing hands during the day,” Elisa Rimpler, of the Danish Union of Early Childhood and Youth Educators, told the BBC. “We don't have masks and we have to keep a good distance from each other so that's a very difficult task."

Danish parents, however, remained concerned that it was too soon to let their children return to school and threatened to boycott the government’s plan. Bloomberg reported that parents drew more than 40,000 supporters with a Facebook group titled “My child won't be a lab rat!”

Denmark is beginning to relax its strict coronavirus lockdown measures by allowing some classrooms to reopen Wednesday. (Philip Davali/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

Denmark was one of the first European countries to impose a lockdown March 11, closing schools, restaurants and non-essential businesses. Danish authorities also banned gatherings of more than 10 people and shut all borders to most foreigners.

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While allowing some classrooms to reopen is only the first step in Denmark’s gradual easing of the month-long lockdown, the government has faced criticism for the continued closure of restaurants, hairdressers and other small businesses, Reuters reported.

“Our job as government is not to look after the interests of certain groups, but to find a balanced solution that is good both in terms of health and also provides significantly better conditions in terms of jobs,” Frederiksen told reporters Tuesday.

The prime minister said a proposal to extend the first phase of resuming daily life would be discussed with parliament later Tuesday. No details were given at the time.

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As of Wednesday, Denmark had 6,876 confirmed coronavirus cases and 299 deaths.